Holiday projects (and a link party)

Slow but steady this week.

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Block Swap Adventure - just received Dec partner info, need to decide on what to make
2. Charity quilts - one quilt top done (see below)
3. Americana QAL - no progress
4. 2016 QAL (secret) - no progress
5. Allietare QAL - second clue done (see below)
6. Knitted hand warmers - maybe I will make another one, but not sure
7. Jane T - no progress
8. Xmas present 1 - knitted scarf: done! (see below)
9. Xmas present 2 - crochet caterpillar, no progress
10. Pantone Color of the Year 2016 - did you see what they picked? need to think about what to make with those colors :)

The EverythingElse List:

1. the SK project - no progress
2. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
3. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
4. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
5. the Ender project - no progress
6. Embroidery calendar - no progress
7. Project of Doom 2015 @ Fandom in Stitches - paused for a while
8. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
9. As You Wish -  no progress
10. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
11. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
12. B quilt - no progress

--
Another Xmas present is done!
My first try at knitting a bigger project (I just did 2 pairs of hand warmers before today)

Pattern by favecrafts 

(the pattern has some missing brackets and * but it's easy to understand where the repeats are)

The scarf is still in blocking stage, but I really like how it looks. I don't like knitting though :)
Small pieces like hand warmers are ok, but bigger pieces like this are harder on my hands and brain :) plus I am not able to undo rows that have mistakes: it's easy to do it with crochet, but when knitting, everything is super unstable if you start undoing rows. So I just left the mistakes in there and they are pretty visible in cool and clean patterns like the one below. But despite the goofs I like the finished scarf.

--

The second clue of Bonnie Hunter's Mystery QAL is out. I decided to follow along, but I will make 1/4 of the units because I don't need a big quilt and I am not sure if I will like the design :)

I decided to go with brighter colors: cyan/aqua/teal (instead of red) and bright yellow (instead of gold). I will probably donate this quilt to charity as a baby quilt, so I want it to be fun and colorful!

For this clue, I was a little nervous about the "sets". I want it to be very scrappy because I didn't pick a constant grey so I am a little worried that now these "set" units will make the design look too "planned" and not scrappy enough to sustain the scrappy grey... however I decided to take the leap and not mix up the grey and neutrals in the units. So each set is the same, but they are different from each other.

I don't like chain stitching, I get bored, distracted and then I make mistakes :)

That's why I used chain stitching but I alternated two projects: the mystery quilt and the charity quilt (see below). And my sewing buddy helped keeping the chain stitching fun and challenging :)

Second clue of Bonnie's mystery QAL... 

with my new pattern Holiday Gingy to wish you Happy Holidays :) 

Linking up at the Monday Link-up party!

The pattern for Holiday Gingy will be available soon on Fandom in Stitches! :)

--
And last, but not least, I want to remind you that I am working on charity quilts,
and I would love your help!! 

Quilts are for a quilt drive to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 

And you can help me by donating orphan blocks, partial blocks, or fabric (scraps, strips, leftover, uglies, whatever). 

If you are willing to mail them to me, I could use them to make more quilts for these kids!!! 

If you are up for a loving donation, please send me an email at tweloq[_at_]gmail[dot_com] or leave a comment here with your email address so I could give you my mailing address. I promise that your donation will be used to make some kids happy and feel more loved!! 

One more quilt top done!

Toddler quilt top - 64 x 46 inches

This is a project from my long Q4 list of projects! (Project 5. in the list)...
This is not done, but it's a good progress since the initial state was "I have the fabric, but I don't know what to do with that" :).
This is a super simple pattern, I saw some quilts online somewhere and I grabbed that idea but I cannot find it any more to link it here :( it's a very very simple pattern overall: it's just alternation of squares and nine patches, but the color placement makes it a "granny square" look. I think it's a perfect pattern for big prints, and for sure it's a quick and easy pattern.

--

How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up

A winner, a PLEA and 5 new patterns!

Let's start with the plea :)

Please please please...
take 5 minutes of your time to check if you are a no-reply blogger!!
There are tons of tutorial that shows you how to check and how to stop this terrible thing that is preventing you to get new friends, replies to your comments and prizes!!!

A simple step-by-step tutorial can be found HERE:
http://www.flusterbuster.com/2013/02/are-you-no-reply-blogger.html
It has pictures and detailed instructions...
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, do that now!!! It's NOT HARD... :)
I had more than 15 people that commented but because of the no-reply situation didn't have a chance to win.

BTW: many people are no-reply blogger but they connected with me through FB or Google+... so even if I didn't see your email, I tossed your name in the drawing... but just because it's Christmas and I didn't want to sound lazy :) but please, it's very sad when I have a price and no way to contact the winner...

I didn't make you jump through hoops to get in the giveaway, 
so do make ME jump through hoops of fire just to find a way to contact you!!!

So pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease check if you are a no-reply blogger NOW!!

Ok... I assume you checked and you are back because you want to know who is the winner of Sew Mama Sew giveaway... and Mr. Random picked comment number 24

Congratulation Celia! I sent you an email to get you mailing info!
And BTW, thanks everyone for your advises on how to use/store scraps!! I got great ideas!!!

And now, since lately I have been receiving a lot of comments and support for my paper piecing blocks, here 5 new patterns!!

--1--
Betty Boop

requested by a Fandom in Stitches fan for a Christmas gift... 

I designed the pattern and she tested it!
Check her amazing work! :) http://www.flickr.com/photos/96545495@N06/11329749844/
And you can download the pattern in the Free Patterns page.

--2--
Here we are with Block number 15 of the Mystery Quilt: Sir Ector.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

--3--
Here we are with Block number 16 of the Mystery Quilt: Sir Kay.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

--4--
Here we are with Block number 17 of the Mystery Quilt: King Arthur.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

--5--
Here we are with Block number 18 of the Mystery Quilt: The Sword in the Stone.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please please please please send me a picture of the block or publish the picture on the FiS Flickr Group (or both of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

And with today's blocks, I shared with you all the blocks of my Sword in the Stone quilt (mystery revealed ;) )!!
In the Disney Quilt page you can see how I put together the blocks... don't ask me how I did it :) I don't have any measurement or instructions... I just put a wide sashing to each block and then I put them on the floor, turned them a little to get the wonky look and then sew together the different sections... I guess there are tutorials for that if you need help... I just eyeballed everything :)

Disney Mystery Quilt, block 14 and much more!!

Here we are with Block number 14 of the Mystery Quilt: Wizard's Duel.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

Few updates from my week and weekend:

• Secret Project 1 (Black Tie Boogie Blog Hop) -- my post is ready scheduled to appear on Nov 26th... but the blog hop will start tomorrow!! I will post about it every day so you can see everyone's great projects!!
• Secret Project 2 (Alice1) -- status: DONE! ready to be submitted (already started using it.... I am very happy about that... and very excited to share it here... wait for Dec 1st and you will be able to see it... squeeeeeeeeee :) )
• Secret Project 4 (FiS) -- designed and waiting for feedback :)
• Secret Santa Swap -- shopping done and handmade item designed!
• Block Swap -- 2 blocks ready to go in the mail tomorrow, pictures here soon!
• Baby quilt -- Pumpkin (our cat) is using it as her favorite quilt :) but I will send it away in a couple of weeks... and then I will share the pictures here!!
• Sew Mama Sew, Giveaway day (Dec 9th) -- I want to participate and I need to prepare my handmade present :) ... still nothing done about it...
• Christmas presents -- 1 pillow done, 9 still to go :) that's going to be my Christmas present for most of my friends :)

Except from that if you want to be updated on my progresses you can become my friend on FB :)

I will need your support/voting for the Secret Project 2 soon... so I will keep bothering you about that :)



And if you become my friend in FB you will also be updated about blog hops and giveaways that I am going to offer soon!!

VOTE!! and a new Disney pattern

Blogger’s Quilt Festival — Voting is Open!

If you are looking for my entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, check
1. Bed quilt --> The Sword in the Stone (entry 19)
2. Wall hanging --> Snoopy Wall Hanging (entry 18)

Even if you don't vote for me, go there and check the amazing quilts that has been submitted!!!!
Go now... I will wait...

Are you back? :)
Great, here are the updates of this week.

---
Another block reached my block-swap partner (Donna) so I can share it with you.

I don't like to work with white fabric because you can see through... but here I used a classical way of making the flying geese so instead of cutting the extra white triangle on the back I left it there! :) it adds a little bulk because it's an extra layer but I think that the effect on the white fabric is much much much better :) and Donna said she liked it so I guess that's what matter :)
She sent me a lovely owl block... but I didn't take any picture yet... I am waiting to put together more owls to show you a proper owl-post.. I also have another owl-project going on so you will have to wait to see the owl-mazing blocks that my partners sent me :)

---
In the Halloween spirit I realized a Trick-or-Treat Sue block (from Jennifer) and a skull block (from Liljabs)

---

I started not one, not two, but three secret projects :) they are secret because they are for contests and blog-hops... so stay tune, because I cannot share them yet :) and I have another secret project that didn't start yet but I will, I promise ;)

---
And finally, since I received so many nice comments about my Disney Quilt (and I also received a couple of pictures of a person that realized some of my blocks!! Thanks Cami!! So excited about that!!!), I decided to share another pattern! Here is Block number 13

 Arthur Having Tea.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

Disney Mystery Quilt, Block 12 and a giveaway winner

If you are looking for my entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival, check
1. Blogger's Quilt Festival: The Sword in the Stone
2. Blogger's Quilt Festival: Peanuts Snoopy Wall Hanging

Thanks to all the people that already stop by and left me nice comments!! You are all great!! ;)

If you are looking for the Quilt&Stitch-TestAlong giveaway drawing, keep reading, it's at the end of this post :)

But before that, let's get down to my project of this last week:

1. the designs for the TFIOS challenge are available on Fandom In Stitches... Follow the link and vote for your favorite!! even if it is not mine!!! ;)

2. another craft from Jennifer's series "Crafts of Halloweens Past", my pumpkin related to the post "Pumpkin earings".

Ok, again, they are not earings... but it's their paper piecing version ;) I hope it counts anyway...

3. I finished testing the block for Esther @ ipatchandquilt... and here it is

I made few changes from the original pattern... just because I want this piece to be the center piece for a Halloween wall hanging... and it looked better for me with the small changes ;)
The small changes are only in the finishing of the hexagons on the sides (they are "finished" and not with the lines that connect them to other hexagons). And the other change is that I printed the pattern smaller than the original. My piece is 60% of the original size (final size: around 18'' square). It is easy to build the single units even if they are smaller. The only thing to keep in mind is that when you scale a pattern, you also scale the seam allowance... so you need to remember that when you cut the pattern or the fabric (you have to remember to cut them bigger than the piece of paper)... it's not a big problem but it's something to keep in mind.
Not all the seams match... but I really don't mind... too many projects to do now to unpick all the seams that are not perfect ;) And I like it anyway!!

4. finally I was able to put together another block from my Disney Mystery Quilt.
Sorry for the delay but this month has been crazy :)
And it is not the block I was planning to share today, but the "single" squares are quicker to prepare than the big rectangular (double) blocks :) so here is

Here we are with Block number 12 of the Mystery Quilt.

The Twelfth Block of the Quilt is Merlin back from the Barbados.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

5. and finally, the winner of the first drawing of the Quilt&Stitch-TestAlong event is...
...
...
Jennifer @ Fandom in Stitches!!! I am very happy that Random.org picked your entry... you are always so supportive!! :)  I will be emailing you soon to ask you for your mailing address :)

IMPORTANT NOTE: to have an entry in the drawing I considered comments on the Quilt&Stitch-TestAlong plus some of the "sharing" post/buttons that I found in some of your blogs... but I didn't receive any direct email for those, so if I found them, good for you, but if not, I am sorry :). If you want to make sure that I add your entry in the drawing, please, send me an email... otherwise I cannot guarantee that I will find your post/button/comment about it on your blog :)

Disney Mystery Quilt - Block 11

Tomorrow the big reveal for the Quilt&Stitch-TestAlong event.
Come back for about 40 new Disney patterns!! :) :)

But today is the time for an "old" new pattern from my Mystery Quilt.

Here we are with Block number 11 of the Mystery Quilt.

If you have any other question, don't hesitate to ask... I may not be able to answer, but I will do my best to find a reasonable answer :)

The Eight Block of the Quilt is Madam Mim Face.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

A Jumbo Coming Back!

I am back! :)
Thanks to the people that sent me message during these crazy days of pain after the wisdom teeth surgery!
I was knocked out pretty bad but I am slowly getting back to my normal energy level and that allows me to put together this post with many news that were hanging around for few weeks now.

Read carefully because there are going to be announcement about new fandom patterns (many) and prizes ;)

But one thing at the time...

----(-1-)----
First, here is Block number 10 of the Disney Mystery Quilt:



The Tenth Block of the Quilt is Upside Down Archimedes.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

----(-2-)----
Melissa received the blocks that I made for her for my Selvage-For-Block swap. So now I can share them with you:

She asked me for a Circle of Geese in purple. This was my fist block:

I was pretty happy with that but I wanted to add an extra block because she sent me soo many selvages :)

I wanted to find a similar but different block and I found a tutorial for a block that looked to me as geese in different flock formation (Triple Framed Pinwheel Quilt Blocks)

This didn't turn out pretty as the one in the pattern :( and I was pretty upset with me :( because all those very tiny stripes and triangles and points require super-precision and I am definitely not good at it. So since I was not happy about the block, I wanted to add a third block for Melissa to make up for that second block. And I went back to Circle of Geese but with a twist :) and I got this: 

Which I really like :) actually more than the first block! :) so at the end of the day, I decided to consider the second a "weird" flock of geese, all irregular and different one another... if you interpret the block that way, is not so bad ;)

----(-3-)----
I received the first blocks from my Block Swap partner. They are very cute owls, but I don't want to show them here yet because I decided to use all the blocks from this swap as my FMQ "practice" sandwitches (similar to the Star Surround QAL blocks) because I don't like to practice on plain fabric and since I didn't put effort in assembly these blocks, I won't feel too bad if my FMQ is not perfect or if I mess up some parts. This takes away the pressure... but at the end I will have very cute blocks to make a quilt or wall hanging, so that's sounds like a great deal to me!! :) So stay tuned to see them in the next weeks :)

----(-4-)----
And the final result of my Star Surround QAL adventure are: two Jumbo pillows!!

These are my first experience with FMQ! I tried many different designs... they are faaaaaar from perfect, but I love the two pillows. These are the designs I have used:

- stitch in the ditch and echo star shape
- basic stippling
- stippling with wondering clovers
- paisley/echo shell (it's a mid point between the two ;))
- pebbling
- loose weave
- checker board
- Spiral illusion

In the last block, I had a huge problem and maybe some of you can help me understand why?
I was doing basic stippling and my machine started not catching the bobbin thread any more. I start seeing those huge stitches and at the beginning I thought was a speed problem, but then it kept happening no matter if I was trying to speed up, slow down, reduce tension, increase tension, rethread the machine, changed the needle, etc :( I tried everything... and it kept doing it... not all the time, but very very often at the end. Then I started using the machine with the normal feet for piecing and this never happen again. Any suggestion? Was my machine just too tired of a full day of FMQ?? :) The funny things is that before that I did much more complex designs and I never had problems... only the stippling of the last space of the last block create this problem...

----(-5-)----
And finally... the big announcement: next weekend I will release TWO completely new full Fandom-related quilts. The first quilt contain 16 blocks (both paper-piecing and embroidery) and the second quilt contain 22 blocks (just paper piecing) for a total of 38 new Fandom blocks!! :)

All the patterns need to be tested, but this time, instead of waiting for me to test them all before the release, I decided to organize a TAL (Test-a-long) with you! ;) I will release all the patterns and I will organize linkup parties with prizes for people that want to make those quilts with me :)

Eventually all patterns will be tested by me for sure, but this time you can decide to test few of them before I do. Even a single block will give you the chance of winning, so stay tuned for more information about rules and deadlines :)

I don't want to reveal yet the theme of the two quilts... but here are the hints:
Quilt 1. And what is the use of a book...
Quilt 2. I made [my fortune] by being smarter than the smarties and tougher than the toughies.

Not feeling good enough

If you are reading this post is because I didn't get enough energy after the wisdom teeth surgery of last Thursday to complete the Disney block that was due today :(
I am sorry for the delay, but I will upload the pattern as soon as I feel better.
If anyone has some advice about how to speed up the recovery and stop the pain in my mouth, I am listening! :(

A King, a cardinal and two yellow guys

Also this weekend 3 patterns are going to be released! Hurray!!

First Block number 8 of my Disney Mystery Quilt



The Eight Block of the Quilt is The Future King.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

Then Minion 1 have been tested by HerbMyst (thank you so much!!) and now is ready to be officially released!

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And since a Minion cannot be alone, here is his tall friend
(need to be TESTED... so it's not the official release,
but if someone wants to try, you can download the pattern here).
UPDATE: the pattern has been tested and fixed
and it can be found in the Free Patterns page.








And this weekend I also pieced this cute guy

This is from a FiS designer (liljabs) and you can find the pattern in the FiS/Sports section.
The pattern is for a 10'' square but for mysterious reasons when I printed it (gazillion of months ago) I reduced to 60% and I have no idea why... that was not a great idea on a such detailed pattern... there were very very small pieces and this is the reason why the area around the eye is white: in the printed pattern I didn't realize that was grey and once it was done I didn't have the courage to rip those tiny itsy bitsy pieces of fabric on itsy bitsy pieces of paper :) So I figured that it will be a special and unique cardinal :) and I actually love that pattern, so thank you liljabs for such a nice pattern!!

Disney Mystery Quilt - Block 7 and more patterns!!

Today there is not going to be one, not Two, but THREE new patterns...
and also a tutorial if someone is interested :)

So let's get down to business :)

Pattern 1:

Here we are with Block number 7 of the Mystery Quilt.

If you have any other question, don't hesitate to ask.

The Seventh Block of the Quilt is Merlin.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!


Pattern 2:

I finally released the second pattern from the Music Series!!
This time is a complete set of notes (quarters).
They are pretty easy to realize because the basic pattern is always the same, the only thing that changes is the space above/below the note and/or it's orientation on the staff.

You can find the pattern in my Craftsy store! :)

Pattern 3:

WARNING: this is an untested pattern. But I keep seeing them around and I could not resist. I don't have a project for him right now, so this is why I didn't test it. But I will share him with you because maybe there is someone that wants to test it! :)

The pieces in the pdf are not colored because the pattern is as it comes from QuiltAssistant (and color indicators on small pieces are more confusing than helping for me :) ).

It makes a block 10.5'' x 7.25''.

You can download the pattern from here.




Tutorial?

It has been a very crafty month... and since birthdays are approaching I started putting together gifts.
I wanted to make a Card Wallet, but none of the ones I found around had the shape/size I wanted. So I took what I like from each of them and I made my own version.

So

++

In particular, this are my likes/dislikes of the three projects:
1) Mega card wallet
likes: more than 4 cards capacity, different pages;
dislikes: too tall for my small purses, pocket opening on top, unfinished back of the pockets.
2) Boys wallet
likes: finished back of the pockets (because of folding), super-easy to assemble;
dislikes: only few cards capacity, pocket opening on top, no closure system
3) Business card holder
likes: closure with button, pocket opening on side;
dislikes: only few cards capacity

So I created a wallet that:
- easy to assemble and has finished pockets' back (folding technique make it super fast and very clean finished look)
- different pages (most of them with pocket orientation on side)
- detachable pages (so even if the final pocket is about 1''), it may be bulky for small bags: so I used snaps to attach the inside pages. Now when I use the small purse I can just grab the internal pages instead of the entire wallet!)
- 12 side pockets + 2 vertical pockets (card size) + 2 vertical pockets (smaller than card size): so plenty of room for all my cards (and for few coupons and cash too)!!

This is the final result of this first prototype:

 

All the different pages (on the left) and the detachable inside pockets (on the top)




The first time I made it, I didn't take any measure, I eyeballed everything :)
But I will make more of those for sure because they make fast and nice Christmas presents ;)
So if someone tells me is interested, next time I can write down all the measures and take some pictures in the process to put together a tutorial about that. :) :)
If you are interested just drop me a comment below or send me and email!

Disney Mystery Quilt - Block 6

Here we are with Block number 6 of the Mystery Quilt.

The Sixth Block of the Quilt is Archimedes on the Hat.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!

Disney Mystery Quilt - Block 5

Here we are with Block number 5 of the Mystery Quilt.

If you have any other question, don't hesitate to ask... I may not be able to answer, but I will do my best to find a reasonable answer :)

The Fifth Block of the Quilt is The Wise Fish.

You can find the pattern in the Free Patterns section.

Have fun, and post a comment below for any question/advice/comment!

And if you tried any of the blocks, please leave me a comment below, or send me a picture of the block or publish the block on the FiS Flickr Group (or all of them :) ). I would love to see your work!!